SEED presents its 2017 Annual Report and 2018 Strategic Plan. SEED had many significant achievements in 2017, including the start of mobile services in Dohuk and Erbil, the opening of its new office in Dohuk, the creation of a Center for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services (MHPSS) at Koya University and the first 24 graduates of the Psychosocial Support Services (PSS) Training Program. Due to the generous support of donors, new foundations, and a U.S. State Department grant in 2017, SEED expanded our work dramatically delivering our high quality MHPSS services all over Kurdistan, working to strengthen local capacity, and doubled the size of our dedicated team!

To reach more survivors and ensure no one in need slipped through the cracks, we started mobile services in March, delivering services across Kurdistan. We have five centers of operation and are delivering services in over thirty different camps and non-camp locations. Our holistic and long-term approach is quite unique in Kurdistan, with specialized and high quality services, we have influence and impact beyond our size. We strived this past year to see that families returning from captivity or displaced or affected by conflict get the care they need to recover and rebuild their lives. We delivered comprehensive services to the displaced, survivors of violence, and those at risk, that combines mental health and a broad range of social support services, to protect, empower, and aid recovery.

SEED has expanded work with the local community, finding that the needs of the local population are not that different from the displaced. With decades of trauma, war, persecution, torture, and genocide, the psychological wounds are both deep and right there at the surface. We worked with survivors of gender based violence – women and men – targeted for “honor–based” violence, survivors of trafficking, and men and boys as both victims and potential perpetrators of violence.

To address the needs that exist in Kurdistan, both from the current conflict and decades of violence and persecution, we are making significant investments in building local capacity of institutions, organizations, and individuals delivering services. At the beginning of 2017, SEED launched the Center for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services (MHPSS) at Koya University, the only university in all of Iraq that has an undergraduate clinical psychology program. Through education, training, and supervision, the Center for MHPSS is strengthening the knowledge and skills of those studying Clinical Psychology, as well as those already working in the field of MHPSS.

Read more about what we accomplished in 2017 in our first Annual Report.